Apparatus for setting up work in knitting-machines



UNITED STATES PATENT Ori-ICE0 ISAAC W. LAMB, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.

APPARATUS FOR SETTING UP WORK IN KNlTTlNG-MACHINES.

[Specilication forming part of Letters Patent No. 49,895, dated September 12, 1865.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ISAAC W. LAMB, of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in ApparatusA for Setting Up Work on Knitting-Machines 5 and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part ot' this specication, in which- Figure l is an elevation of an apparatus to be used in setting up work in knitting, made according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the line w ot' Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

This invention consists in an apparatus for setting up work on knitting-machines, by the aid of which the work may be set up on a knitting-machine almost instantly without the aid of old work, and thereby a great saving of time is secured upon any knitting-machine to which it maybe adapted, in beginning the work when by accident it may have run off a machine 5 but its value is especially apparent in the facility thatitaords for knitting the heels of stockings.

The apparatus herewith presented is one designed to be used on a machine of the class known as straight7 machines, and especially that class of straight machines that employ two rows of needles, operating alternately, as in the knitting-machine patented to me September 15, 1863; but it is plain that the same device may be used upon circular-knittin g machines by making it in a circular form, or upon straight-knitting machines employing but one row of needles.

A is a plate of metal of a length a little greater than the row of needles ot' the machine on which it is to be used. The upper edge has a series of wedge-shaped ngers, B, formed thereon, whose distance apart is to be equal to the distance of the needles apart, and their breadth is to be such as will permit them readily to pass between the needles. rIheir ends are bent over into the form of hooks. The opposite edge of the plate has a bail, C, which servesthe purposeof holdin g the weights which are to be applied when the work has been set up and the fabric is being produced.

rI he manner of applying and using the apparatus is as follows, taking the process of knitting a stocking, as an example, upon one y of my knitting-machines: The foot ofthe stocking is irst knit up to the line where the heel is to be joined thereto. The machine is then set in condition so that only the back rowv of needles will operate, and the crankis turned once around, while the yarn-carrier is held still or with the yarn broken and taken out of the carrier. The loops are thus all let oit of the back row of needles, while those ou the front row remain on. The yarn is then inserted through the eye of the yarn-carrier, and the crank is started until the rst needleis startedup about a half of its movement. The plate A is then inserted between the rows of needles from beneath, behind the work, the hooked n gers being placed against the back row of jacks, with the hooks toward the work already on the machine. The plate is to be also so tipped or inclined that the hooks will be behind the yarncarrier, and the tops ot the hooks are to be placed nearly as high as the top of thejacks, between the needles, and agaiustthe jacks, not between them. The plate A is heldin this position while the machine is operated or moved one stroke or a half-revolution of the crank. The back row of needles will come up between the hooked ingers B, and when the needles retire, after having received the yarn in their hooks, they will draw the yarn into the hooks of the ngers B, so that the plate A may be suspended upon the yarn by the hooks ot' fingers B, which have hold ofthe yarn between each of the needles, and thus a loop is formed vupon each needle. Proper weights are now attached to the bail C of the plate, and the knitting is proceeded with the same as though loops had been placed by hand upon each needle and weights attached to the old fabric, as in the former manner of setting up work. When sufficient is knit for the heel of a stocking the machine is set to knit hollow or tubular work, and the leg is produced.

If it is desired to set up new work on oneof my knitting-machines, the machine is set in position to operate only the back row of needles, and the work is set upon that row; then both rows of needles are operated together chine, with hooks or their equivalents 011 the Once across, when loops are formed on both ends of such fingers, for the purpose of holdrows of needles, and the Work can be proing onto the yarn between the needles, and gressed with the saline as when knitting any thus setting up the Work on a knitting-maplain tubular Work. chine Without the aid of old Work.

What I claim as my invention and desire to c v secure by Letters Patent, is- 7 ISAAC W' LAMB' The setting-up apparatus, made substan- Witnesses: tially as above described, having fingers B to be JOSEPH DEWEY,

placed between the needles of a knitting-ma- DANIEL W. BUSH. 

